The president of the Community promises tax credits for the inhabitants of aged rural environments
The rural municipalities of Ricote, Pliego, Aledo, Abanilla, Ojós, Ulea, Moratalla, Campos del Río, Albudeite, Bullas, Cehegín and Calasparra are suffering from a worrying process of depopulation. It is alerted by the Economic and Social Council of the Region in its exhaustive study on Rural Areas in the Region, co-directed by the Emeritus Professor of Applied Economics of the UMU José Colino and presented this morning.
The president of the CES, José Antonio Cobacho, has emphasized the peculiarity of the Region, which is «the second fastest growing province in Spain in population but at the same time includes 12 municipalities highly affected by depopulation. The presentation was attended by the state CES president, Antón Costas, for whom the report «is not a lament, but a defense of the rural world to work, live and undertake. If the 20th century was that of the urban and the metropolis, the 21st could be the one of return », he highlighted, convinced that the generation of employment is the main engine against depopulation.
One of the fundamental actions proposed by the report against depopulation are advantageous fiscal measures. Precisely, the president of the Community has announced the implementation of tax credits for the next year for the inhabitants of rural areas. The regional depopulation strategy also includes aid for access to housing and the investment of 16 million euros reserved for the rural development plan.
The report concludes that the Region of Murcia is one of the Spanish provinces with the highest degree of urbanization, although its segmentation between rural and urban areas is not simple. With the undoubtedly rural and urban areas, porosity lands coexist that have led the authors of the study to create the category of intermediate zones. It must be taken into account that there are very large municipalities in the Region, such as Lorca, which are urban, but have areas, such as the high districts, very rural, and which the report has called intermediate.
The study has segmented the Region using four factors: the delimitation of the territory in cells of 1km2, the calculation of the aging index, the agricultural-forestry coverage of the municipal surface and the accessibility to the reference public hospital.
With these parameters, 20 rural areas, thirteen intermediate municipalities and twelve urban municipalities have been determined. Within the group of rural areas, there are twelve (Ricote, Pliego, Aledo, Abanilla, Ojós, Ulea, Moratalla, Campos del Río, Albudeite, Bullas, Cehegín and Calasparra) that have very serious demographic problems. The aging rate (the population over 65 among the population under 16) of Ojós, for example, is almost 400. That means that there are four residents over 65 for every minor, a situation in the opinion of the researchers « untenable”. Other municipalities have managed to grow in population, such as Abanilla or Beniel, but in those twelve aging persists and is worrying.
The study warns of the pernicious vicious circle generated by these aging rates: the greater the aging, the lower the activity rate, the more unemployment, the negative migratory balance and, as a consequence, the greater the increase in that aging. In the twelve affected municipalities, the activity rate is lower, the unemployment rate is higher, the average income is lower (80% of the average) and the rate of poverty and exclusion is higher: while the regional average is at 30%, in these rural areas it reaches 40%.
However, the Region is, with the Balearic Islands, the autonomy with greater accessibility to public services in rural areas. The study defines the time it takes from each cell to the reference health centers and hospitals and to educational centers, and it is optimal. The assessment made by the inhabitants of rural areas regarding their accessibility to health and education services is relatively good. The evaluation is much worse in other parameters, fundamentally with respect to transport services, which are very badly valued, especially by women, who depend more on them.
The aging process is permanent and is maintained, but it has a remedy. The authors of the study propose 40 measures for this, among which two stand out. The first, that the public administrations define what are the powers of each one to coordinate and reinforce the role of the town councils, which are the ones who know the territory best. In addition, direct measures are proposed, such as acting through taxation. Just as Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands have favorable treatment due to insularity, rural areas affected by aging could have this favorable tax treatment in matters such as the IBI, the IAE…, so that young people find an incentive.
effect of the pandemic
The pandemic has favored rural areas, which have benefited from a favorable evolution in Social Security registration data due to the fact that many workers decided to work from those areas thanks to teleworking. However, this favorable situation has not been taken advantage of, since, the study highlights, the digital infrastructures in rural areas are not good, and there are difficulties in connecting to broadband, which slows down the dynamics. The president of the Community has announced on this issue a plan for the arrival of 5G broadband in rural areas.
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